Julia West

Affect in Sporting Activities: a Preliminary Validation of the Worcester Affect Scale

Affect in Sporting Activities: a Preliminary Validation of the Worcester Affect Scale The overly long psychometric measures available for affect may have caused difficulty measuring this construct during physical activity (Barkoff & Heiby, 2005; Wilhelm & Schoebi, 2007). This paper aims to create a two-item affect scale to measure feeling states during physical activity. In study 1 ninety-four participants completed the PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) and the newly designed Worcester Affect Scale (WAS) measuring positive and negative affect. In study 2, seven participants completed two 20km cycle time trials in the laboratory. PANAS and WAS were administered prior to and after the trials and WAS was reported at frequent regular intervals during each time trial. Preliminary validation of the WAS was confirmed with significant correlations between the WAS and PANAS. The WAS scale is quick and easy to administer and was sensitive in measuring fluctuations in affect within a 20km cycle time trial. Future work is needed to examine the fluctuations in affect and clarify the relationship between positivity and negativity.

What Constitutes Research Ethics in Sport and Exercise Science

Prior to any research data collection a proposal outlining methods and protocols is required to undergo ethical scrutiny. The issues surrounding a research ethics review process within sport and exercise science departments are not dissimilar to other subject areas. In particular, the ethical review process may be unclear to the researcher and can either present a difficult and time-consuming challenge or be merely perceived as a tick-box exercise. The aim of this study was to explore and compare research ethics processes and decisions within sport and exercise science departments and institutions across the UK. Participants were asked to provide decisions and justification of those decisions on ten typical sports and exercise science proposals. Results found that all respondents cited evidence of informed consent and subject information sheets, detailed methodology and data protection procedures as highly important across all scenarios. Additionally it was found that similar processes occur regarding research ethical scrutiny and similar decisions are made at the departmental level. However, confidence fluctuates for individuals when reviewing in non-specialist subject areas and qualitative data collected calls for more research ethics training.

A review of the key demands for a football goalkeeper

This review evaluates previously published findings relating to the needs of a football goalkeeper during match performance. Whilst there has been much interest in some aspects of goalkeepers training, performance analysis and needs analysis, these have been from closed skill penalty situations or reported as comparisons with outfield players. This paper identifies important demands, assesses the implications for coaching and as a result highlights where the focus for effective future research should be to further enhance the development of goalkeeping performance.